Maltese Dominicans Re-Elect Fr. Mark Fsadni: Why This Historic Vote Matters to Every Islander

Maltese Dominicans Re-Elect Provincial for a Second Term: A Vote of Continuity in a Changing Archipelago

The narrow cobblestones of Valletta’s Republic Street were unusually hushed at dawn last Saturday, but inside the 16th-century cloister of the Dominican Priory of St Dominic, the air crackled with anticipation. By 7:30 a.m., the chapter hall—its walls still flaking with the powdery limestone dust that centuries of sea breeze have deposited—was packed with the white-robed friars whose presence has shaped Malta’s spiritual and intellectual life since 1450. After an hour of prayer, a single slip of paper was dropped into an antique chalice: Fr. Mark Fsadni OP had been re-elected Provincial of the Maltese Dominican Province for a second four-year term.

The vote—unanimous on the third ballot—was more than an internal ecclesiastical footnote. In a country where 86 % of citizens still identify as Catholic but Sunday Mass attendance has slipped below 40 %, the re-appointment signals a deliberate choice for continuity at a moment when the Order’s schools, parishes and cultural projects touch tens of thousands of Maltese lives every year.

“Continuity doesn’t mean standing still,” Fr. Mark told HOT MALTA moments after the result was proclaimed beneath the priory’s baroque altar. “It means consolidating the bridges we’ve started to build between the Gospel and the granular realities of Maltese society—migration, mental-health strain, and the ethics of AI gaming platforms that are designed a stone’s-throw away in Sliema.”

Born in Żebbuġ 52 years ago, the newly reconfirmed Provincial is no stranger to public scrutiny. As parish priest of Gżira he opened the church crypt to homeless migrants during the 2019 winter surge; as university chaplain he debated secularists on campus about reproductive rights without ever losing the affection of students who nicknamed him “Fr. TikTok” for his 60-second catechesis reels. His first term (2020-2024) coincided with the pandemic, during which the Dominicans converted their renowned house of studies in Rabat into a night shelter for victims of domestic violence—an initiative that secured €250,000 in EU social-fund monies channelled through the Maltese government.

Local impact, global roots

The Maltese Dominican Province is geographically tiny—26 friars across three islands—but historically weighty. It staffs the historic Dominican Church in Valletta (tourists know it for Caravaggio’s St Jerome), runs the 400-year-old Studium in Rabat where future theologians from Africa and Europe read for pontifical degrees, and co-sponsors the popular radio programme “Għanja tal-Ħsieb” on RTK 103FM. During Fr. Mark’s first term the province also assumed pastoral responsibility for the 5,000-strong English-speaking migrant community centred on St Patrick’s in Sliema, a move that brought Filipino nurses and Indian IT engineers into the same pews once filled by British navy officers.

The re-election is therefore being read as a vote of confidence in a distinctly Maltese brand of Dominican life: intellectually rigorous but Mediterranean-warm, rooted in the village festa yet fluent in Reddit threads. “We are not a museum piece,” insisted Fr. Marius Zerafa OP, prior of St Dominic’s Valletta. “The friars want someone who can negotiate with government on affordable-housing policy in the morning and explain the Thomistic view of friendship to teenagers on Discord at night. Mark has proved he can do both.”

Cultural ripple effects

Beyond the cloister, the news resonates in unexpected quarters. Heritage NGOs lobbied hard for Fr. Mark’s continuation after he brokered a public-private deal that will see the crumbling 17th-century Annunciation Priory in Vittoriosa restored as a maritime research hub, with EU Recovery Fund cash and a boutique hostel whose profits will finance further restoration. “We’re talking about 14,000 man-hours of traditional stone-carving skills passed to a new generation,” explains Claire Bonavia, CEO of Din l-Art Ħelwa. “That’s economic as well as spiritual capital.”

Meanwhile, parents at Dominican-run schools—St Albert the Great College in Valletta and St Thomas More in Żejtun—breathe easier. During the last mandate the province phased out streaming by socio-economic background, introduced mindfulness courses in Maltese, and kept fees frozen despite inflation. “The friars showed that a Catholic school can be a laboratory of social mobility,” said Dr Daniela Falzon, head of the parent-teacher council.

Of course, challenges loom. Vocations have ticked up—three local novices this year, the highest since 2008—but average age province-wide is 63. The environmental footprint of the Order’s historic real-estate portfolio is under scrutiny, and the forthcoming debate on Malta’s abortion amendment will test the friars’ ability to articulate a pro-life stance without alienating the young. Still, as the bells of St Dominic rang out over the Grand Harbour on Saturday, worshippers and café-hoppers alike paused—a reminder that in Malta, church bells remain the original push notification.

Fr. Mark himself was characteristically brisk about the road ahead. “We preach to taxi drivers, TikTokers and tech CEOs,” he smiled, adjusting the white scapular that had slipped during interviews. “Same Gospel, new notifications. The friars have asked for continuity; now we deliver.” The paper ballot may have been burned in the chapter room brazier, but the mandate is unmistakable: keep the Dominican voice in Malta’s national conversation—loud, lucid, and unmistakably local.